page_title: Nico Yennaris
section_title: Breakthrough (2015–2017)
hierarchical_section_title: Nico Yennaris / Club career / Brentford / Breakthrough (2015–2017)
caption_attribution_description: English: Brentford footballer Nico Yennaris playing for Brentford at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea, London in January 2017.
context_page_description: Nicholas Harry Yennaris, also known as Li Ke, is a Chinese professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Beijing Guoan and the China national team. Born in England, he began his career in the academy at Premier League club Arsenal and came to prominence in the Football League with Brentford. He has been described as a "rugged, all action defensive player, with a positive, winning mentality" and won 10 caps for England between U17 and U19 level. After joining Beijing in his mother's home country of China in 2019, he was naturalised as a Chinese citizen and made his international debut for China later that year.
context_section_description: Yennaris made his first appearance of the 2015–16 season in the League Cup first round versus Oxford United on 11 August 2015, starting in central midfield, but he was forced off with a dead leg after 53 minutes of the 4–0 defeat. After returning to fitness, injury to regular right back Maxime Colin saw interim manager Lee Carsley bring Yennaris back to the team in early October and he held onto his place through to late-December, when Colin returned from injury. A shortage of midfielders and injury to Maxime Colin saw Yennaris regain his place in the team in mid-February 2016, with new head coach Dean Smith utilising him as a defensive midfielder and describing Yennaris as "a revelation" in the position. He signed a new three-year contract on 16 February and after over two years at the club without scoring a goal, Yennaris scored in wins over Nottingham Forest and Bolton Wanderers in early April and finished the season with 33 appearances.
  Despite some injury troubles during 2016–17 pre-season and a long-standing calf problem, Yennaris was fit enough for a place on the bench versus Huddersfield Town on the opening day and after coming on for Josh McEachran in the second half, he scored his third Brentford goal on 77 minutes, which proved to be a consolation in a 2–1 defeat. He quickly re-established himself as a starter in defensive midfield and played through the pain of his niggling calf injury. Yennaris scored his second goal of the season on 2 January 2017, sealing a 3–1 victory over Birmingham City with a 25-yard strike. He was the club's only ever-present player during the 2016–17 season (with 49 appearances) and scored six goals. On 9 June 2017, Yennaris signed a new four-year contract.
caption: Yennaris playing for Brentford in January 2017.
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